FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a railborne or track vehicle, in particular a passenger car, having a car body disposed on an underframe with a trough-like bottom, two trucks each being disposed at a distance from an end surface in a truck region, a middle region disposed between the truck regions, end regions each tapering from one of the truck regions to one of the end surfaces, and a roof.
In rail-bound vehicles it has long been known, particularly for railway passenger cars as well as for streetcars, to reduce the width of the end regions of the vehicles relative to the middle region, or at least to taper them toward the end surfaces, in order to keep the free overhang of the car body within a specified structure gauge or clearance in curves and turns. The structure gauge or clearance is a clearance which is measured from the track outward, that must not be exceeded on all sides so as to reliably preclude possible collisions in multiple-track operation or in tight spaces, for instance.
Previously, the width of the cars, known as the car body width, was selected for the narrowest point of the inner limitation in the tightest curve or turn to be traversed. That means that in conventional vehicles, the maximum allowable car body width for the structure clearance cannot be made use of, since the outward swing of the car body presents an inner or outer limitation in curves and turns. In other words, in order not to exceed the boundary specified by the structure clearance, the car body width must be narrower than the maximum allowable width on a straightaway, so that even in turns, the specified boundary clearance will be adhered to.
Such a structure necessarily lessens the possible space available for the car body on the straightaway.